Case Number 05745: Small Claims Court

THE MISSING: SUPERBIT EDITION

The Charge

How far would you go and how much would you sacrifice to get back what you
have lost?

The Case

The year is 1885 and it's the wild frontier. On a small homestead, a widowed
doctor named Maggie (Cate Blanchett, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of
the Ring) lives with her two children -- Dot (Jenna Boyd, Dickie Roberts:
Former Child Star) is a spunky tyke, while Lily (Evan Rachel Wood,
Thirteen) is a more sensitive teenager. Maggie lives on the farm with a
hired hand (Aaron Eckhart, The Core), who is sleeping with her but never
stays in her bed (she wouldn't want to give everyone the wrong idea). When
Maggie's deserter father-turned-Indian, the craggily Samuel Jones (Tommy Lee
Jones, The Fugitive), shows up on her doorstep, he is angrily turned
away. But Maggie will soon find that she needs her estranged father's help more
than ever when her oldest daughter Lily is suddenly kidnapped by renegade Apache
Indians led by a vile witch doctor named Chidin (Eric Schweig). Maggie, Dot, and
Samuel suddenly find themselves trailing the Indians in a desperate bid to buy
back Maggie's daughter before she's taken over the Mexican border and sold to
unscrupulous bidders looking to use her as a slave.

I'm sure there was a lot of pressure on Ron Howard when The Missing
was released in 2003. Howard's previous film was A Beautiful Mind, and
since it took home the coveted Best Picture Oscar in 2001, The Missing --
like most follow-ups to major award winners -- was going to pale by comparison.
That's a shame, since while The Missing isn't "destined to become a
classic" (as the back of the case touts), it's most certainly an
entertaining cowboy thriller that sports Tommy Lee Jones doing...well, his
patented Tommy Lee Jones stuff.

There isn't a whole lot going on in The Missing -- the plot of the
movie boils down to Jones and Blanchett tracking Indians in an attempt to rescue
Blanchett's kidnapped daughter (played without much excitement by Evan Rachel
Wood). The film consists of numerous shoot-outs, Indian witch doctors blowing
red and green dust into innocent folk's faces, and a lot of horses galloping
through wide-open country. While there isn't much to this fairly simplistic
tale, I have to admit that I enjoyed it almost the entire way through.

The performances are all well executed, especially Tommy Lee Jones as Samuel
Jones, A.K.A. Chaa-duu-ba-its-iidan (his Indian name, literally meaning
"actor who is paid much for starring in big budget film"). Jones is
one of the most reliable actors in Hollywood. No matter what film you see, if
Jones is in it you know the whole shebang is going to be raised up a few notches
just by his presence (well, except for the dreadful Batman Forever).
Jones plays an old Indian/white guy who spends much of the film squinting a lot
and looking very tired/contemplative/thoughtful -- but hey, he does it with
style. Blanchett is effectively tough as Maggie, a woman who will stop at
nothing to retrieve her child (and who among us would act differently if placed
in her situation?) The most chilling performance is by Eric Schweig as the
terrifying Indian witch doctor holding the girls captive. His hulking frame
moves with lightning speed, making for a formidable villain for Jones and
Blanchett.

Ron Howard is a filmmaker of staggering intelligence and talent. He's been
able to make us laugh (Night Shift, Splash), cry
(Parenthood), and bite our nails until they were nearly stubs
(Ransom). With The Missing, Howard has crafted a movie that is
pure popcorn entertainment, and little else -- but does that always have to be a
bad thing?

The Missing is now part of Columbia's highly touted Superbit line.
Once again, the bitrate on this disc is higher than a normal DVD, mostly because
the extra features from the previous release have been left off the disc. The
film is presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, its original aspect ratio. I
have not seen the previous disc's transfer, though if it's anything like the
Superbit edition I'm sure it looks great. The colors are all vibrantly rendered
without any bleeding or dullness. The black levels are all solid and dark. Dirt,
grain, and other imperfections are noticeably missing, making for a near perfect
picture. While the only people who will see the difference between this release
and the previous DVD are those with really high-end equipment, those with
a taste for the expensive will be interested in picking up this disc. The rest
of you can stick with the original release.

The soundtrack is available in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround as well as DTS
Surround, both in English. I must say that I found the 5.1 mix to have a slight
advantage over the DTS track -- for some reason the Dolby 5.1 sounded better on
my home theater system. However, both of these tracks should please audiophiles
alike -- there are a great many surround sounds to be found here. Both the front
and rear speakers are engaged readily and often, making for a fine home theater
experience. Also included on this disc are English, Chinese, Korean, French,
Spanish, Portuguese, and Thai subtitles.

On par with almost all of the other Superbit DVDs, The Missing
doesn't feature a single solitary extra feature.